Golf: Ryder Cup now a movable feast

This week's Ryder Cup is the first in France and only the second outside Britain. Photo / AP

However baffled Bubba Watson was in 2011 by Paris, with its "big tower" (Eiffel) and "arch" (Arc de Triomphe), America's golfers had better get used to the Ryder Cup's Grand Tour.

In France now and Rome in 2022, the trans-Atlantic clash has broken free of its British and Irish moorings to explore the great capitals of the continent.

Le Golf National, 35km west of Paris, precedes the Marco Simone Golf and Country Club, 16km from Rome, and with views, they say, of St Peter's dome, it's one up on, say, the Belfry near Birmingham.

This week's Ryder Cup is the first in France and only the second outside Britain. Only once has the event touched down in Ireland (the K Club in 2006) and once in Wales, at Celtic Manor. On the European side of the water, the Ryder Cup has hit the road.

With the growth of Europe v the United States comes frantic commercialisation of the chance to stage it. In Italy already, the Marco Simone is being worked on by "architects, engineers and agronomists". New roads, paths and lakes are being laid down. These transformations are of mini-Olympic scale, with countries now treating Ryder Cup hosting rights as a mark of national esteem.

The build-up to this 42nd running reflects the expansion of Ryder Cup golf into an entertainment marathon and "travel package", with official five-night trips ranging from £2000 ($3900) to £5000 ($9700), depending on how nice you want your Paris hotel to be.

A celebrity match on Wednesday will feature actor Jamie Dornan, surfer Kelly Slater, footballers Luis Figo and Alessandro Del Piero and former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. More football magnetism is applied with David Ginola presenting a one-hour opening ceremony, which is followed by a 90-minute concert by the Kaiser Chiefs and Jain, from France.

The Kaiser Chiefs and golf? Set your face to surprised mode. But this is how the modern Ryder Cup rolls. And all the major European golfing countries want a piece of it.

Already major courses in Ireland are vying for the 2026 rights, with Adare Manor, Royal Portrush and Royal County Down mentioned. To win the 2018 race, Le Golf National fought off candidates in Germany, Sweden, Portugal, the Netherlands and Madrid.

The Ryder Cup, which was once staged at Moortown Golf Club in Yorkshire and Ganton near Scarborough, is now a movable feast and international television spectacle. Against that backdrop, scepticism about France's appetite for golf seems irrelevant.

Michael Lorenzo-Vera, a French European Tour pro, shocked his country's golf administrators when he said: "Golf is not a good thing here. It's for rich people and spoiled kids. Golf is a very private thing for people in France."